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Clear Soup

A clear broth made from beef shin, veal knuckle, carrots, turnips, leeks, onions, peppercorns, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Clear Soup

Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the beef and veal in cold water for 6 hours.

  2. Blanch the carrots, turnips, leeks, and onions.

Make the broth

  1. In a stock pot, combine the meat, vegetables, and water.

  2. Add peppercorns and cloves, then bring to a boil.

  3. Boil for 1 hour.

  4. Remove the vegetables and cut them into fancy shapes.

  5. Continue boiling the meat for an additional 3 hours.

  6. Skim off fat as needed.

  7. If the liquid reduces, add boiling water to maintain the level.

  8. Clarify the skimmed fat for frying later.

  9. Remove the meat and place it on a flat dish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef shin
Provides meat flavor and gelatin from connective tissue that gives the broth body.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatin and a mild, delicate flavor that enriches the broth.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down into the liquid.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and a subtle earthy flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off fat as needed. Fat that is left in the pot emulsifies into the liquid and makes the broth cloudy and greasy. Regular skimming keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, carrot, turnip, leek, onion):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, carrot, turnip, leek, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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